If you're on the the move a lot, then file security is always a concern. There's not much you can do to protect your laptop from security breaches other than making sure that you've password protected your log-on screen and disguised your most confidential folders as well as possible. However, this is neither very secure or convenient and if you're like me, you'll only end up confusing yourself by hiding private folders in your Windows folders. It's far better and often very simple, to encrypt your hard drive so that it's only accessible via passkeys or by running a certain program. The good thing too is that there's several portable solutions that you can carry around on a USB drive which can encrypt your hard drive periodically or on-the-fly. Here's 5 of the best:
TrueCrypt - Codes and decodes your hard drive and data in real time
Steganos Secure Traveller - Powerful encryption for everything from disks to WiFi connections
PowerKey - Ultra powerful encryption for highly confidential data
HandyCrypto - Uses strong AES encryption for protection on the fly
Cryptic Disk - Also provides tools to partition and then encrypt divided drives

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[...] Original post by Nicholas Mead [...]
How come four of your 'top 5' are not free, like Truecrypt..... Oh, what am I saying?! TrueCrypt is as crappy as paying for portable encryption utilities. Drag'n'Crypt ULTRA! dsCrypt Omziff XORrior Crypturn fencyption Blowfish Advanced CS SafeHouse Explorer ChaosMash All of these are free and portable!
It was not supposed to be a list of free utilities. At the time of writing, those were good encryption tools but I'll bear your suggestions in mind for a future post concerning free and portable encryption utilities.